Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Surprisingly or maybe not for once, our leader of the council Cllr Clive Hart was not being interviewed, at least not at the time I was listening.

I just wonder whether this was a journalistic decision, or maybe given Labours previous u-turn perhaps Clive was unavailable, still even the No to night flights campaign viewed the suggested of a new rail station as a positive.

Earlier in the year Clive refused to get caught up in promoting KLM's new service.

32 comments:

Looks like the BBC have just caught up with old news reported by the local press 2 months ago so I don't see why Clive Hart needs to comment now in the press. Yet again you have your anti labour blinkers on. Do you want 800 houses built on green belt?

This idea of a parkway station has been in the cards for sometime, that said this one little boosts to maybe add energy to the idea harms no one, as to blinkers, my point is that either labour get behind this or stand up and face the backlash of hardworking people who despair of labour.

Do I wish to see more housing on green fields no I don't

My opposition to previous developments is we'll documented on this site and I appeared in a couple low budget films on the subject.

So Anon 13.15 we have a property developer that wants to build 800 houses on farm land at Manston Green. Under new planning rules they don't even have to provide any affordable/social hosing if this gets approved before 2016. And in return the developer will improve the road structure which will obviously be needed for such a development, and also provide the land for the parkway station which will also be very useful for all those DFL's to get to work.But no mention on who will be paying the tens of millions for the station? I don't think it will be the current owners of Manston and TDC is broke so either KCC or the government will have to cough up and the developer and the farmer can bank a hefty profit.

Simple economics, 15:13. Sometimes farms are not profitable so farmers sell off their land. Golf courses do not seem to have that problem, but I am quite sure that if a golf course was running at a loss it would quickly come on the market.

As to other leisure facilities, loads of sports grounds and school playing fields have been sold off for redevelopment. Even our own Jackie Bakers is a fraction of the size it was, and still shrinking, from when I was a kid playing cricket and rugby there.

Don't even go there with barracks and their grounds. Take Howe Barracks in Canterbury which is modern and with good facilities. To be sold off for redevelopment because it is more valuable real estate than some disused former RAF airfield up north which will become home to the displaced soldiers.

Once all these houses are built to the East of the runway the occupants will complain about aircraft noise, having moved there without realising that Manston is a working airport. Seriously though this needs to gather legs and get Thanet prosperous.

Blah blah blah..we've heard it all before. I remember going to a meeting at the old Ramsgate School when Manston was being transferred to the private sector. The, then Leader of the Council, Barry Coppock was asked: "How much is all of this going to cost us?" He replied: "It will not cost you a penny. The developer will pay." Here we are 15 years later. 15 years in which Manston has consistently lost money and has failed to deliver on any of the jobs promises which were made at the outset. Millions of pounds of public money have been spent re-routing the main road to move it away from the runway. And now, further millions are to be spent on a pointless railway station. Who can I vote for who will oppose this madness?

Hmm, lets build a station a few hundred metres away from Ramsgate and then bus the occupants to the airport. Why not save millions and just bus them from the current station? Build a terminus where the swimming pool is so its closer by road. Either option will require buses to go through manston village. Are they happy about that? Why not suggest to this property consultant they would be better off applying to put 8,000 houses on the airport itself. Any development, change to the railway signalling to accomodate a station are a decade away. Infratil will likely be long gone by then as they have promised shareholders it will be sold. - tricky without a buyer- or made cash neutral, ie, closed.

How strange that in the press this week according to the boss of the airport that the figures are not available. Surely the boss would know how many of the 80 seats on each of the 2 planes are empty, or maybe it would be easier to count the occupied ones.

Manston's bust again and polluted so why is the Parkway white elephant being trotted out by Buchanan, presumably with the support of Paul Carter and KCC? Construction industry and all-night cargo planes again. Why are the Police not investigating the goings-on at Manston? A few more TDC and KCC councillors in jail sounds like a good idea.

You really do come out with the same old nonsense, Garbage, or should that be the same old garbage, Nonse!The police have better things to do, Tim, and the jails are full of proper villains. Why don't you just toddle of to Thailand and do whatever it is you do there.

Well, since you don't have one, I thought it would be more informal. You could of course be something else if you prefer though most of your postings have similar content and wording to Tim's blog site.

I've used KLM from Manston a few times now and the planes have never been more than half full, often way less than half.I am a supporter of Manston, always have been, but we need a fast rail link to London and Medway to make it attractive to passengers.Someone mentioned police- last time I came in - to deal with 30 passengers there were 2 immigration officers, one senior immigration officer, two customs officers visible and two policemen, one obviously armed.Only the police were behaving in a threatening manner with their body language, others were friendly. We thought the cops were going to arrest some passenger off the plane but nothing happened.KLM may continue to provide a lossmaking service at Manston because it feeds their international services from Amsterdam, and may therefore make a profit for them in the end.

Clearly all bets are now off as far as Manston is concerned. We wait to see what the new owner have planned and whether they intend to invest or just asset strip.For the benefit of Bignews Maragte he may be interested to know that cllr Hart has issued a statement. now that there is something to comment on,

Difficult to see what assets there are to strip at Manston. A few airport buildings, no use for much else, some fire tenders and the fixtures and fittings. The land, well Infratil could not sell that so how come the new owners might do better.

Nope, my guess is that as they are already in the transport business the new owners genuinely intend to make a go of it as a regional airport.

As for Hart, well he could hardly ignore this news and there might be a few brownie points going for trying to appear as though he is in the know, which in itself would be a first.

Manston GreenI have read the developers plans for Manston Green and have made the following observations:THEY SAY1/ It will improve Thanet’s rail connectivity by building a Parkway Station. The original plans for this station (commissioned by KCC)were too site this near Sevenscore roundabout and west of Cliffsend village, a far better site for access to a dual carriage way road, and not passing through the narrow roads of Manston Village2/ It will improve Thanet’s road connectivity How if it is using the same roads to get into and out of!!3/ A park and ride facility That would be a good thing, but here?4/Reduce congestion on Haine road How when it is using the same Haine road but with its new residents living in Manston Green and its new residents vehicle’s , congestion is created by choke points, they will still be there at Lord of the Manor roundabout and the roundabout at the junction of the B2050 and the A2565/ 800 new homes would need community facilities and primary school .This would be required were ever new homes of this magnitude were builtThe developer fails to mention that this development is either under or within 500 mtrs of the runway centre line , this is either because the developer will not be living under this or he feels that he will be able to put in place, a contract with the home owners/tenants or future owners/tenants that they will under no circumstances be able complain or raise issue to the fact that the are next to an Airport or under the flight path.It is interesting to see the “sweetner’s” placed under Thanet councils nose so that they give planning permission for this development .1/ We will build a Park and Ride!2/We will build a Parkway Station!I do not think they would be so gullible as to accept the above, or naive to imagine that there will not be a new influx of Manston Noise Complaints from those that cannot see an airport when purchasing/ renting their homes but are quite able to see a railway line when it passes a home ! and not complain about train noise.

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